One way vs Round trip vs multi city airfare issue

[test123]

Hello—

I’m planing a trip that has 5 flight segments: Chicago -NYC-London-North Africa -Paris-Chicago. For a variety of reasons (including the need for specific seat choices, complex itinerary, loyalty programs, interspersing train travel, etc) it makes the most sense to book most of these as flexible multi-city or all as separate 1-way trips. For several of the segments there is not a steep cost penalty to do these as one-ways.

However- the 1-way Paris-Chicago return leg is extremely expensive compared to a round trip or a 1-way Chicago to Paris. For example, a 1-way, non-stop chicago -Paris flight ranges between $200-500. A non-stop Paris to Chicago starts at $1500.

Another example- a 3 segment multi-city united itinerary (Chicago-NYC, NYC to London, Paris to Chicago) is $1100. If I drop the NYC- London leg (because its not ideal for several reasons) the price for the same 2 other flights jumps almost 4x (this is shopping on both United site and an aggregator). Related to this difficulty is that most of the aggregators will not mix airlines on a multi city itinerary which pressures me to use 1-way segments to get the itinerary and other specifications I need.

Anyways-my question is whether anyone has experience booking a round-trip itinerary that they don’t intend to use one of the segments. In my case, I could save a lot of money if I booked round trip with Paris to Chicag and a Chicago to Paris “return” that I probably would either waste or perhaps get a refundable fare or perhaps a fare credit that I would use rebook in the future (one of my kids lives in Paris).

Is this frowned upon? Do I open myself for any sort of penalty, etc? Any downsides?

One of the US airlines I’m considering booking this incomplete round trip on denominates the transaction in EURO’s because maybe they assume I’m French because the trip originates in Paris? I cant find a way to toggle the currency to USD. My experience with booking past European travel is that my travel credit card (no FTF) will transact in Euros or USD.

Appreciate any commenst. Thx in advance.

[HooCares]

What you are describing is “skip lagging” which is booking additional segments with no intention of taking them. This is frowned upon, but not illegal. You can google and read all about it.

A few considerations:

1) If you book a multi leg trip and miss a segment it’s likely any additional segments will be cancelled.
2) If there are multiple stops and you check baggage, you may not be able to retrieve your baggage if you intend on skipping a further on segment. Even if you do not intend to check any baggage, you may end up being forced to if overhead space is all used up.
3) Penalties can be refusal to ticket you go forward, cancellation of your frequent flyer program, and there may be specific financial penalties spelled out in contract of carriage that you don’t read.

I wouldn’t necessarily worry about booking a round trip flight and not taking or changing/cancelling the return leg. But I would be more cautious about booking say 3-leg trips without taking the 3rd leg.

[MGBMartin]

How about a booking Chicago to London round trip then for the return do Paris-London-Chicago. Then do the London-North Africa-Paris-London as separate itinerary and tickets.
You would have to assure you pad enough time for a Paris London layover, maybe overnight.

[livesoft]

Decades ago when I moved overseas I didn't know when I was coming back. A round-trip was cheaper than a one-way. So I booked a round-trip with the return as far in the future as possible. I didn't use it.

In another case, when I had a voucher that was going to expire, I booked a trip as far in the future as the voucher would allow which was about a year after the original voucher was about the expire. I did go on the trip, so I thought that was a way to cheat the voucher expiration limit.

[oxothuk]

In my experience, there is a big penalty for one-way transatlantic flights, as compared to a round-trip or open-jaw transatlantic itinerary. More often than not, I book the transatlantic portion separately from the rest.

I wouldn't worry about whether the fares are denominated in EUROs or USD (assuming you can do the math for comparison purposes). Some airlines let you choose your currency, while others default to the home currency of the originating airport.

[Jack FFR1846]

I dealt with this constantly along with our company travel agent. I'd strategically book the "out" to a destination with one airline with a long time before the "back". I would fly 5 or 6 days during the week using different airlines or when at one destination, my rep would plan visits to head towards the next destination with the other rep coming to get me part way. For the future trip, I did the cities backwards using all return trip tickets. Sound complicated? Sure. I would also do a round trip ticket and not use the return, doing all other legs on other airlines or Via Rail in Canada. I can't remember if I did the ticket where my actual destination was the connection but I know others in the company did that all the time. They would carry all their bags and have no other reservations with the same airline, so cancellations would never matter. The downside is that your flight has an issue and they reroute the aircraft and don't connect at the same city. It's always a big game. That's how I viewed it.

[mchampse]

You can try splitting things up to get to a round-trip including “open-jaw” tickets. For instance, try:

London -> North Africa
North Africa -> Paris

Or NYC -> London
Paris -> Chicago

may yield a savings compared to 1-way. If you have some flexibility, also consider:

NYC-> London
London -> Chicago

If you can use frequent flyer points, some of the airlines allow a stop-over so you could book:

Chicago -> London with a stop over in NYC
Paris -> Chicago

Good luck!

[seawolf21]

You are doing throwaway ticketing. It is the purchasing a cheaper round trip fare and not doing the return. The return value is only usable for another flight(s) in the same direction as the return. So in your case the return Chicago to Paris is only usable for another US to France/Europe flight(s).

Airlines don’t catch on/care if you do it once or twice but if it becomes a habit, they will close your mileage account and/or take legal action to recover the lost revenue as the flights you took should have been the more expensive one ways.

[sctrojan]

Dont do it on a frequent flyer program you have any miles on. Otherwise they may seize your miles.

Also you can pay with a virtual card but that shouldnt be an issue really.

If you do it multipke times the airline COULD ban you as well. But once you can make up an excuse I am sure. Something about an emergency change of plans.

[Random Poster]

Not sure how fixed your itinerary is, but if you can rejigger the Paris segment, look into an around-the-world ticket, which you can buy online via OneWorld or Star Alliance and maybe SkyTeam through their respective websites.

They are perfect for one-way flights that generally go in one direction (as in, your last flight back to ORD will involve going over the Pacific), and are priced by miles or continents visited.

But such a ticket could easily come out cheaper than what you’ve found so far.

[Baylor Boy]

You are doing throwaway ticketing. It is the purchasing a cheaper round trip fare and not doing the return. The return value is only usable for another flight(s) in the same direction as the return. So in your case the return Chicago to Paris is only usable for another US to France/Europe flight(s).

Airlines don’t catch on/care if you do it once or twice but if it becomes a habit, they will close your mileage account and/or take legal action to recover the lost revenue as the flights you took should have been the more expensive one ways.

And by my understanding, throw away ticketing is not exactly the same as skip lagging which is skipping the last segment. A person could have any number of very legitimate reasons they don't get on the return flight. I would guess airlines aren't caring much about that since they would catch a decent number of their customers doing it in the normal course of business when plans change or alternatives pop up.

If you are concerned, you could call the airline after your arrival back in Chicago and put on hold the Chicago to Paris segment because "plans changed" and it's not clear when you are going back to Paris. Let it sit like that indefinitely, or try to use any value/credit at some other point.

[thetadecay]

One of the US airlines I’m considering booking this incomplete round trip on denominates the transaction in EURO’s because maybe they assume I’m French because the trip originates in Paris? I cant find a way to toggle the currency to USD. My experience with booking past European travel is that my travel credit card (no FTF) will transact in Euros or USD.

Other people have already advised you on skip-lagging so I'll refrain from echoing them.

For booking, you may need to us a VPN to pretend you're in the US, or hunt around on the website to change the country/locale. And if you have frequent flyer miles, they generally allow you to book a one-way ticket without a cost penalty.

[Raybo]

Can't you simply cancel the return flight? You likely won't get much back for it (fees and more fees), but you still get the cheaper flight.

I was in Italy when an emergency caused me to cancel a return flight and book another one-way flight for several days earlier. I canceled the flight, got about $5 back and nothing was said about it. Maybe the airline figured out that I had taken a similar flight, so I didn't skip anything. Frankly, I doubt this.

[TrogdorsPeasant]

Lets be clear, not using a return ticket is not technically "skip lagging." That's specifically when you want to go from Chicago to Raleigh, but the flight that originates and terminates in those two cities is more expensive then a flight from Chicago to New York that has a stop in Raleigh.

You book the Chicago to New York ticket for less $, only do carry on, and walk off the plane in Raleigh without telling the airline in Raleigh. You got Chicago to Raleigh for cheaper, and the airline has an unused seat on Raleigh to NY they could have sold. It also messes with their reporting and security, and could rarely result in the flight getting held because of a person missing from the manifest.

Airlines are far more flexible and understanding if you book an actual round trip ticket and then *tell them* in advance (a few days or few hours) you're not using the return flight on the date scheduled. They're happy to re-sell the seat. Most of the time you can re-use the value, within the restrictions mentioned of things like, if it's a EU to US flight the re-use of the credit may also need to be on something that involves an EU to US leg. In some cases there won't be restrictions like that. Other times you can't salvage the value, but you still got the itinerary for cheaper, so win. You're not going to damage your standing with the airline.

[Thesaints]

But also keep in mind that if you bought ORD-RDU-JFK-ORD, with the idea of skipping the RDU-JFK leg, the airline will cancel the JFK-ORD leg.

[bendix]

Hello—

I’m planing a trip that has 5 flight segments: Chicago -NYC-London-North Africa -Paris-Chicago. For a variety of reasons (including the need for specific seat choices, complex itinerary, loyalty programs, interspersing train travel, etc) it makes the most sense to book most of these as flexible multi-city or all as separate 1-way trips. For several of the segments there is not a steep cost penalty to do these as one-ways.

However- the 1-way Paris-Chicago return leg is extremely expensive compared to a round trip or a 1-way Chicago to Paris. For example, a 1-way, non-stop chicago -Paris flight ranges between $200-500. A non-stop Paris to Chicago starts at $1500.

Another example- a 3 segment multi-city united itinerary (Chicago-NYC, NYC to London, Paris to Chicago) is $1100. If I drop the NYC- London leg (because its not ideal for several reasons) the price for the same 2 other flights jumps almost 4x (this is shopping on both United site and an aggregator). Related to this difficulty is that most of the aggregators will not mix airlines on a multi city itinerary which pressures me to use 1-way segments to get the itinerary and other specifications I need.

Anyways-my question is whether anyone has experience booking a round-trip itinerary that they don’t intend to use one of the segments. In my case, I could save a lot of money if I booked round trip with Paris to Chicag and a Chicago to Paris “return” that I probably would either waste or perhaps get a refundable fare or perhaps a fare credit that I would use rebook in the future (one of my kids lives in Paris).

Is this frowned upon? Do I open myself for any sort of penalty, etc? Any downsides?

One of the US airlines I’m considering booking this incomplete round trip on denominates the transaction in EURO’s because maybe they assume I’m French because the trip originates in Paris? I cant find a way to toggle the currency to USD. My experience with booking past European travel is that my travel credit card (no FTF) will transact in Euros or USD.

Appreciate any commenst. Thx in advance.

Whenever I have a situation where I only want to do a one-way but cant find a decently priced one, I try to use miles to book the one way.

You could book a refundable roundtrip (or at least book one where you can cancel the inbound for a credit) and then cancel the flight back, but usually passenger get hosed in these situations and you can be happy if you get a small fraction back as the airline will do a black box calculation on how much was the outbound and inbound flight and guess what, the flight you used was always a lot more expensive and the one you want refunded turns out to be surprisingly cheap.

[vinhodoporto]

What we typically do in this situation is book a round trip USA / Europe ticket and then separately book the tickets for travel in Europe, North Africa etc.

The reason for this is a USA / Europe round trip is usually much cheaper than two transatlantic one ways. The only exception is when booking with miles everything is booked as individual segments.